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Jerry Sonnenberg
Jerry Sonnenberg (Republican Party) was a member of the Colorado State Senate, representing District 1. He assumed office on January 7, 2015. He left office on January 9, 2023.
Sonnenberg (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Colorado's 4th Congressional District. He lost in the Republican primary on June 25, 2024.
Sonnenberg completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Sonnenberg previously served in the Colorado House of Representatives, representing District 65 from 2007 to 2015.
Biography
Sonnenberg's professional experience includes working as a farmer, rancher, assistant in a funeral home, photographer for local newspapers, and part-time instructor of the Farm Business Management Department at Northeastern Junior College.
Committee assignments
Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.
2021-2022
Sonnenberg was assigned to the following committees:
- Capital Development Committee
- Senate Appropriations Committee
- Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee
- Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee
2019-2020
Sonnenberg was assigned to the following committees:
- Capital Development Committee
- Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee
- Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee
2017 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:
| Colorado committee assignments, 2017 |
|---|
| • Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy, Chair |
| • Appropriations |
| • State, Veterans and Military Affairs |
| • Capital Development |
| • Legislative Council |
2015 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Sonnenberg served on the following committees:
| Colorado committee assignments, 2015 |
|---|
| • Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy, Chair |
| • Appropriations |
| • State, Veterans and Military Affairs, Vice chair |
| • Capital Development |
2013-2014
At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Sonnenberg served on the following committees:
| Colorado committee assignments, 2013 |
|---|
| • Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources |
| • Appropriations |
| • Legislative Audit |
2011-2012
In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Sonnenberg served on these committees:
| Colorado committee assignments, 2011 |
|---|
| • Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources, Chair |
| • Appropriations |
| • Capital Development, Chair |
| • Judiciary |
2009-2010
In the 2009-2010 legislative session, Sonnenberg served on these committees:
| Colorado committee assignments, 2009 |
|---|
| • Agriculture and Natural Resources |
| • Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources |
| • Appropriations |
| • Capital Development |
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2024
See also: Colorado's 4th Congressional District election, 2024
Colorado's 4th Congressional District election, 2024 (June 25 Republican primary)
Colorado's 4th Congressional District election, 2024 (June 25 Democratic primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Colorado District 4
Incumbent Lauren Boebert defeated Trisha Calvarese, Hannah Goodman, Frank Atwood, and Paul Fiorino in the general election for U.S. House Colorado District 4 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Lauren Boebert (R) | 53.6 | 240,213 |
 | Trisha Calvarese (D)  | 42.0 | 188,249 | |
 | Hannah Goodman (L) | 2.6 | 11,676 | |
 | Frank Atwood (Approval Voting Party) | 1.4 | 6,233 | |
 | Paul Fiorino (Unity Party) | 0.3 | 1,436 | |
| Total votes: 447,807 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Douglas Mangeris (L)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Colorado District 4
Trisha Calvarese defeated Ike McCorkle and John Padora Jr. in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Colorado District 4 on June 25, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Trisha Calvarese | 45.2 | 22,756 |
 | Ike McCorkle | 41.1 | 20,723 | |
 | John Padora Jr. | 13.7 | 6,882 | |
| Total votes: 50,361 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Karen Breslin (D)
- Anil Saxena (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Colorado District 4
The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House Colorado District 4 on June 25, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Lauren Boebert | 43.7 | 54,605 |
 | Jerry Sonnenberg | 14.2 | 17,791 | |
 | Deborah Flora | 13.6 | 17,069 | |
 | Richard Holtorf | 10.7 | 13,387 | |
 | Michael Lynch | 10.7 | 13,357 | |
 | Peter Yu | 7.1 | 8,854 | |
| Total votes: 125,063 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Ted Harvey (R)
- Ken Buck (R)
- Justin Schreiber (R)
- Chris Phelen (R)
- Floyd Trujillo (R)
- Trent Leisy (R)
- Mariel Bailey (R)
Polls
- See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls
Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.[1] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."[2] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.
The links below show polls for this race aggregated by FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics, where available. Click here to read about FiveThirtyEight's criteria for including polls in its aggregation.
Election campaign finance
| Name | Party | Receipts* | Disbursements** | Cash on hand | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lauren Boebert | Republican Party | $4,822,754 | $5,434,885 | $159,145 | As of December 31, 2024 |
| Deborah Flora | Republican Party | $450,657 | $450,657 | $0 | As of August 6, 2024 |
| Richard Holtorf | Republican Party | $153,492 | $153,492 | $0 | As of September 30, 2024 |
| Michael Lynch | Republican Party | $143,843 | $136,843 | $0 | As of December 30, 2024 |
| Jerry Sonnenberg | Republican Party | $356,932 | $356,932 | $0 | As of September 30, 2024 |
| Peter Yu | Republican Party | $285,212 | $9,554 | $275,658 | As of March 31, 2024 |
|
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." |
|||||
Satellite spending
- See also: Satellite spending
Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.[3][4][5]
If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.
| By candidate | By election |
|---|---|
Endorsements
To view Sonnenberg's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Sonnenberg in this election.
2022
- See also: Colorado State Senate elections, 2022
Jerry Sonnenberg was not able to file for re-election due to term limits.
2018
- See also: Colorado State Senate elections, 2018
General election
General election for Colorado State Senate District 1
Incumbent Jerry Sonnenberg defeated Debra Gustafson in the general election for Colorado State Senate District 1 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jerry Sonnenberg (R) | 79.0 | 52,311 |
 | Debra Gustafson (D) | 21.0 | 13,894 | |
| Total votes: 66,205 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Colorado State Senate District 1
Debra Gustafson advanced from the Democratic primary for Colorado State Senate District 1 on June 26, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Debra Gustafson | 100.0 | 5,523 |
| Total votes: 5,523 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Colorado State Senate District 1
Incumbent Jerry Sonnenberg advanced from the Republican primary for Colorado State Senate District 1 on June 26, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jerry Sonnenberg | 100.0 | 23,879 |
| Total votes: 23,879 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2014
- See also: Colorado State Senate elections, 2014
Elections for the Colorado State Senate took place in 2014. A primary election took place on June 24, 2014. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was March 31, 2014. Jerry Sonnenberg was unopposed in the Republican primary and defeated Doug Aden (Constitution) in the general election.[6][7][8]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican |  Jerry Sonnenberg |
85.3% | 45,689 | |
| Constitution | Doug Aden | 14.7% | 7,876 | |
| Total Votes | 53,565 | |||
2012
Sonnenberg won re-election in the 2012 election for Colorado House of Representatives District 65. He ran unopposed in the Republican primary on June 26, 2012. He won election unopposed in the general election on November 6, 2012, as well.[9]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Jerry Sonnenberg Incumbent |
100% | 26,545 | |
| Total Votes | 26,545 | |||
2010
Sonnenberg ran for re-election to the 65th District seat in 2010. He had no opposition in the primary or general election. The general election took place on November 2, 2010.
2008
On November 4, 2008, Sonnenberg won re-election to the 65th District seat in the Colorado House of Representatives, running unopposed in the general election.[10]
Sonnenberg raised $44,854 for his campaign.[11]
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Campaign themes
2024
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released March 22, 2024 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jerry Sonnenberg completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Sonnenberg's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
- The border crisis is key to keeping our citizens safe. Without borders we have no country. The flow of illegal immigrants into our communities has not only created a financial crisis for these residents but has increased crime. The open borders has also opened a super-highway for drug trafficking from drug cartels from our southern neighbors.
- Inflation has cost the average family an extra $15,000 to maintain the same standard of living that they had just a couple of years ago. I don't know of many people that have had an increase in their wages to cover the higher cost of everyday necessities. Our national debt as well as our government printing and distributing more money has devalued every citizens bank account and until we cap our debt and get our spending under control, government will drive its citizens into the poor house.
- Polarization and divisiveness in government has led the citizens to not trust their leaders. Integrity and character should be a priority among our leaders and even though our elected officials may disagree on policy, they should work to solve the problems of this country and quit playing political games. The people of America deserve a representative that has a proven track record of solving problems with integrity and character.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign ads
Ballotpedia did not come across any campaign ads for Jerry Sonnenberg while conducting research on this election. If you are aware of any ads that should be included, please email us.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Colorado scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
2022
In 2022, the Colorado State Legislature was in session from January 12 to May 11.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on issues relevant to the mission of the Centennial Institute and the strategic priorities of Colorado Christian University.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to reproductive health issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills that the organizations supports or opposes.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills that the organizations supports or opposes.
- Legislation is scored on its "reduction of taxes, regulation, and spending accountability."
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills about Colorado's climate, land, water, and communities.
- Legislators are scored on their stances on animal issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on "bills that will protect consumers, strengthen our democracy, and safeguard public health."
- Legislators are scored on their votes related to public health issues.
- Legislators are scored on votes related to "the principles of individual rights, free markets and limited government."
- Legislators are scored on their votes related to mental health issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- Legislators are scored based on their votes on LGBTQ+ issues.
- Legislators are scored on votes related to intellectual and developmental disability legislation.
2021
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show]. |
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In 2021, the Colorado State Legislature was in session from January 13 to June 8.
|
2020
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show]. |
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In 2020, the Colorado State Legislature was in session from January 8 to June 15.
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2019
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show]. |
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In 2019, the Colorado State Legislature was in session from January 4 through May 3.
|
2018
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show]. |
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In 2018, the 72nd Colorado State Legislature was in session from January 10 through May 9.
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2017
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2017, click [show]. |
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In 2017, the 71st Colorado State Legislature was in session from January 11 through May 10. There was also a special session from October 2-3.
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2016
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2016, click [show]. |
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In 2016, the second session of the 70th Colorado General Assembly was in session from January 13 through May 11.
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2015
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2015, click [show]. |
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In 2015, the first session of the 70th Colorado General Assembly was in session from January 7 through May 6.
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Personal
Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Sonnenberg has been a member of the Colorado Farm Bureau, Elks Club, and the National Rifle Association of America.[12]
See also
2024 Elections
- Colorado General Assembly
- Colorado State Senate
- Colorado Senate Committees
- Colorado state legislative districts
External links
|
Candidate U.S. House Colorado District 4 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ For more information on the difference between margins of error and credibility intervals, see explanations from the American Association for Public Opinion Research and Ipsos.
- ↑ Pew Research Center, "5 key things to know about the margin of error in election polls," September 8, 2016
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Outside Spending," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Total Outside Spending by Election Cycle, All Groups," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ National Review.com, "Why the Media Hate Super PACs," December 12, 2021
- ↑ Colorado Secretary of State, "Official primary candidate list," accessed May 1, 2014
- ↑ Colorado Secretary of State, "Official primary election results," accessed June 25, 2014
- ↑ Colorado Secretary of State, "Official general election results," accessed December 5, 2014
- ↑ Colorado Secretary of State, "Official 2012 Primary election results," accessed April 14, 2014
- ↑ Colorado Secretary of State, "2008 General election results," accessed April 14, 2014
- ↑ Follow the Money, "Funds raised by 2008 House candidates," accessed April 14, 2014
- ↑ Project Vote Smart, "Biography," accessed April 15, 2014
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
Colorado State Senate District 1 2015-2023 |
Succeeded by Byron Pelton (R) |
| Preceded by - |
Colorado House of Representatives District 65 2007-2015 |
Succeeded by - |
